Using the AWS CLI
You can use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to control multiple AWS services from the command line and automate them through scripts. You can use the AWS CLI for ad hoc operations, such as creating a table. You can also use it to embed Amazon DynamoDB operations within utility scripts.
Before you can use the AWS CLI with DynamoDB, you must get an access key ID and secret access key. For more information, see Granting programmatic access .
For a complete listing of all the commands available for DynamoDB in the AWS CLI, see the AWS CLI command reference.
Topics
Downloading and configuring the AWS CLI
The AWS CLI is available at http://aws.amazon.com/cli
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Go to the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.
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Follow the instructions for Installing the AWS CLI and Configuring the AWS CLI.
Using the AWS CLI with DynamoDB
The command line format consists of a DynamoDB operation name followed by the parameters for that operation. The AWS CLI supports a shorthand syntax for the parameter values, as well as JSON.
For example, the following command creates a table named Music. The partition key is Artist, and the sort key is SongTitle. (For easier readability, long commands in this section are broken into separate lines.)
aws dynamodb create-table \ --table-name Music \ --attribute-definitions \ AttributeName=Artist,AttributeType=S \ AttributeName=SongTitle,AttributeType=S \ --key-schema AttributeName=Artist,KeyType=HASH AttributeName=SongTitle,KeyType=RANGE \ --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=1,WriteCapacityUnits=1 \ --table-class STANDARD
The following commands add new items to the table. These examples use a combination of shorthand syntax and JSON.
aws dynamodb put-item \ --table-name Music \ --item \ '{"Artist": {"S": "No One You Know"}, "SongTitle": {"S": "Call Me Today"}, "AlbumTitle": {"S": "Somewhat Famous"}}' \ --return-consumed-capacity TOTAL aws dynamodb put-item \ --table-name Music \ --item '{ "Artist": {"S": "Acme Band"}, "SongTitle": {"S": "Happy Day"}, "AlbumTitle": {"S": "Songs About Life"} }' \ --return-consumed-capacity TOTAL
On the command line, it can be difficult to compose valid JSON. However, the AWS CLI can read JSON files. For example, consider the following JSON code snippet, which is stored in a file named key-conditions.json.
{ "Artist": { "AttributeValueList": [ { "S": "No One You Know" } ], "ComparisonOperator": "EQ" }, "SongTitle": { "AttributeValueList": [ { "S": "Call Me Today" } ], "ComparisonOperator": "EQ" } }
You can now issue a Query
request using the AWS CLI. In this example,
the contents of the key-conditions.json file are used for the
--key-conditions
parameter.
aws dynamodb query --table-name Music --key-conditions file://key-conditions.json
Using the AWS CLI with DynamoDB local
The AWS CLI can also interact with DynamoDB local (downloadable version) that runs on your computer. To enable this, add the following parameter to each command:
--endpoint-url http://localhost:8000
The following example uses the AWS CLI to list the tables in a local database.
aws dynamodb list-tables --endpoint-url http://localhost:8000
If DynamoDB is using a port number other than the default (8000), modify the
--endpoint-url
value accordingly.
Note
The AWS CLI can't use the DynamoDB local (downloadable version) as a default
endpoint. Therefore, you must specify --endpoint-url
with each
command.